Phineas
Parkhurst Quimby

§

tecnh

WHERE DO I DIFFER FROM ALL
OTHERS?

Wherein
do I differ in theory and practice from all others who cure the sick?

All
mankind, with possibly a few exceptions, have admitted the existence
of disease as something independent of the mind. The cure, therefore,
must be brought about by some agent also independent of the mind.
Various measures and inventions are accordingly resorted to as
remedies in the treatment of disease.

Most
people believe in medicine as a remedy. Some believe in prayer and in
the influence of departed spirits. Mineral water and sea bathing,
mesmerism and foreign travel are often recommended for the same
purpose - all of which claim a power independent of man's reason and
are believed to contain a virtue far superior to man, himself.

To
me, however, they are all deceptions, from the drugs of the
allopathist to the prayers of the Mormon. They are all founded on one
idea - that the body contains intelligence.

I
employ none of these aids. I believe they are the medium of disease,
and instead of lessening the evil, they increase it. This was the
case, for instance, in the Salem witchcraft. Unable to explain the
phenomenon, the people, in their efforts to suppress the disease,
only extended it.

My
theory is this: Mind is matter and the medium of Wisdom. Like iron or
clay, it contains no wisdom in itself - but is only a material to be
molded into ideas by Wisdom or error.

Mind,
being the material called "man," is a shadow (or machine)
whose owner cannot be seen. Man may be compared to a corporation. You
see the building, the machinery and the operation - but the
corporation you do not see. In like manner, you see the human body -
but the power that works it, though it is the real man, is invisible.

Now
when the machine gets out of order, I do not address myself to the
machine but to the intelligence that controls it. I do not call to my
aid mediums, spirits, electricity or any of the popular agencies of
the day. But I appeal directly to the owner of the body and seek to
enlighten him as to the cause of the difficulty and the means of
correcting it.

If
I succeed then the patient, himself, effects the cure, and the cure
is a permanent one - for the same influence that destroyed the
disease will prevent a repetition of it. This is what Jesus meant
when he said, "Whoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst."

With
children, however, and those who are not able to understand the
truth, I am obliged to apply the correction - not to the intelligence
- but to the mind. But I should as soon think of checking the
operations of a steam engine by throwing coal on the fire as of
changing a patient's mind by a dose of medicine.

Let
me illustrate this further by a galvanic battery. Call the battery
the "body" and the liquids the "mind." When the
battery is set in motion certain results follow. Electricity, like
thought, is thrown off - and if wrongly directed, a bad result is
produced. This is illness.

Now
in order to correct the difficulty, a doctor would give his attention
to the battery, as though the cause of the difficulty resided there.
I would give mine to the operator, for I deem the ignorance of the
operator, the disease - and the supposed difficulty, simply its
natural effect.

There
is a vast difference between a disease and a phenomenon. Idiocy, for
instance, is not a disease - for a fool is perfectly satisfied with
himself. But tell a bright child it is becoming a fool - repeating
the assertion till the child believes you - and it will commence to
create a mental image like the pattern given to it.

The
misery you have produced on the child's senses shows itself in the
image, and this, in turn, produces some disturbance in the body. This
the world calls "disease." I call it the effect of disease
the natural result of the misery contained in the belief.

I
will cite a case in point. I was called to visit a little girl who
was sick. I found her lying on a lounge in a kind of stupor, utterly
unmindful of what was passing on around her. She had been in this
condition nearly a year. Her parents, having previously consulted a
physician, told me that she had water on her brain and that she was
losing her mind in consequence of it.

After
two or three visits, I became convinced that there was no water on
her brain but that the child's insensibility was caused by her
parents' belief in the fact assumed. The result proved that I was
correct. I gradually awoke the child from her stupor, changed the
direction of her mind and restored her to her health.

In
this case it was clear to me that the parents had communicated their
belief, which they had derived from the doctor, to the child - and
were making her an idiot!

I
make use of my own intelligence as the sole medium of my cures -
others ascribe efficacy to external remedies. The homeopath puts
virtue into a powder which must be powerful. The spiritualist puts
intelligence into the dead. The Christian who is taught that prayer
can cure believes the remedy to be in the prayer.

All
have something external to themselves in which to locate the curative
power. I have not. The Wisdom by which I cure - being superior to the
cause of the disease - comprehends it and knows that all medicine is
useless, except as it satisfies the patient while nature restores the
mind to a quiet state.